Holy Cross and Bucknell Leave NIT and NCAA Tourney With Highest Honors

Although Wisconsin had to rally to beat Bucknell on Sunday, and St. Joe's was battling with Holy Cross to the very end on Monday, there are no shortage of smiles coming from athletic directors all around the Patriot League. In the span of a week, the Patriot League went from "Why are these guys in the tournament?" to "Why shouldn't there have been 2 Patriot League teams in the NCAA tournament?"

What a turn of events! Congratulations to Bucknell and Hoy Cross, who may just have ushered in a new era of Patriot League basketball!

Permit me to go on about basketball for another moment longer..

What will happen because of this?Bucknell will without a doubt be in a "Bracket Buster" game on ESPN during the regular season... guaranteed. Next year will feature 5 teams (Holy Cross, Bucknell, American, Lehigh, Colgate) who all have a chance to compete for the PL title -- with 3 teams returning 5 starters, in Lehigh, Bucknell, and Holy Cross.

I'm especially encouraged not only by the upsets, but in both Bucknell's loss to Wisconsin and Holy Cross' loss to St Joe's tonight, that they were close games and they played tough the whole way through.

I invented a word tonight: surgence. If there's such a thing as a resurgence, then why not a surgence? Patriot League Basketball was mired at a certain level since its inception. But now, with NIT and NCAA wins, this could spell a surgence into a different level of basketball. This could be really special!

Coming soon: NFL Draft, Spring Football, and Kevin Higgins to the Citadel?

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